Devices for moistening labels or the like



April 9, 1963 J. VOGL 3,084,665

DEVICES FOR MOISTENING LABELS OR THE LIKE Filed April 25, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR.

Jude )1 V051 April 9, 1963 J. VOGL DEVICES FOR moxsmunc; LABELS or: was LIKE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 25. 1961 tni gii vi 1 April 9, 1963 J. VOGL 3,084,665

DEVICES FOR MOISTENING LABELS OR THE LIKE Filed April 25, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VEN T0 R.

Jde, 1L Vqql 0 o I} 41 41 W i United States This invention is directed to devices for quickly and easily moistening gummed faces of labels or paper strips and the like, and particularly to moistening devices which will simultaneously apply moisture to both sides of double gurnrned labels, or selectively to only one gumrncd side thereof.

It is an important object and accomplishment of my invention to provide portable relatively inexpensive devices for selectively applying moisture to either one or to both gummed faces of labels or strips and which includes a receptacle-like casing having a base; a pair of spaced apart upwardly opening wells; bafile or wall means between said wells; means for removably supporting a pair of brushes in positions to contact faces of labels passed through said device; means for guiding the labels in a horizontal path and then upwardly between said wells and said brushes; and means for selectively maintaining one of said brushes out of contact with labels passed through said device.

Further objects and accomplishments of my invention are: (a) to provide a portable device for applying wet coatings to labels or the like which may be inexmnsively made either of one moulded or cast piece or of two separate units adapted to interfit when assembled so that flexible labels may be inserted through side openings of a lower base unit and guided horizontally and upwardly into engagement with the upper portions of one or more brushes to be thereby wetted;

(b) To provide adjustable baffle and label guiding means to construct one of said brushes from contact with labels passed through said device when only one face is to be moistened, said bafile means being adapted to aid in guiding labels in their upward movement so that such labels will enter the space between the upper portions of moistening brushes;

() To provide pivoted means for closing the principal portions of the upper openings of the water and brush containing wells of aforesaid device to prevent excessive evaporation and guard against accidental wetting of other objects, and cover means for releasably holding the upper portions of the brushes together and in intermingled relation so that such brush portions will yieldably press and contact the gumrned faces of labels which are passed therebetween in order to apply adequate moisture to such gummed faces of labels or the like; and to provide pivoted cover means which hold the brushes against upward lifting movement when gurnmed labels are passed between and in contact with said brushes.

Other and further important objects of my invention will be apparent from the following description and claims:

On the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of my portable moistening device with the moistening brushes removed.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view thereof with one of the covers open and one of said covers omitted.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged top plan view of the lower base portion of said device.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of said base portion taken on a vertical plane indicated by lines 4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken on a vertical plane indicated by line 55 and showing the brushes in normal position.

atent FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken on a vertical plane indicated by line 66 of FIG. 4 and looking toward the inside of the upwardly extending middle shoulder of the base portion of my device.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged top plan view of one of the pivoted covers of said device.

FIG. 8 is an edge elevation of one of said covers.

FIG. 9 is an end elevation of the covers shown in FIG. 7 and taken on line 99 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged elevational view of the adjustable battle plate normally disposed in lower position between the lower portion of the brushes.

As shown on the drawings:

Numeral 10 designates generally a base comprising a receptacle which is preferably moulded of plastic, metal or equivalent material. Said base 10 has integral opposite upwardly extending end walls 11 and 12 and has a pair of relatively large entrance or loading slots or openings 13 on opposite side thereof, one of which entrance openings 13 is shown in H6. 2. Said end walls 11 and 12 have inwardly extending integral webs or reinforcing ribs 14, each of which has an upwardly opening hole 15 there in, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6. Each of said ribs 14 also has formed therein a rectangular upwardly opening recess to a short distance inwardly, as illustrated in FlG. 6.

Numeral 17 designates an upwardly and inwardly curved and inclined bottom member which provides a guiding means for gummed labels or strips and which is preferably integral with base 10 and which terminates in a longitudinally extending saddle 18. Saddle 18 has a shallow trough 19 which said trough has a pair of longitudinally spaced slots 20 formed therein, as shown in FlG. 4.

FIG. 5 illustrates a well-container or casing 21 which has an upper opening extending from one of its ends to its other end as illustrated and means for mounting brushes therein and other cooperating parts. Casing 21 has a pair of integral depending opposite end walls 32 and 33 which terminate in depending lugs 22 which fit inside of the upper edges of the corners of the end walls 11 and 12 (see FIG. 5}. As shown in FIG. 3, the opposite end edges of the curved upwardly converging bottom me nber 17 gradually converges inwardly toward the saddle 13, and has short edge flanges 24 as shown in FIG. 3. These flanges aid in guiding gummed labels toward the middle portion of the discharge slot and into engagement with the brushes hereinafter described.

As shown in PK}. 5, two inner downwardly and inwardly curved walls 25 and 26 extend from the side walls 30 and 31 which have their upper edges ribbed and preferably formed integral with side walls 30 and 31 respectively. Said curved walls 25 and 26 extend from one inner web 34 to the other web 35 formed integral with end walls 32 and 33 respectively, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 2, a pair of upwardly and inwardly inclined guide panels or wall portions 27 and 28 extend from the curved walls 25 and 26 respectively and their upper ends are spaced apart to provide a rectangular discharge slot or opening for labels or strips and to aid in guiding the labels or strips edgewise upwardly. Said guide panels 27 and 28 are connected at their ends and preferably formed integral with curved wall portions 25 and 26, as illustrated in FIG. I.

Said opposite end walls 32 and 33 and side walls 39 and 31, together with the central guide panels 27 and 28, define a pair of water-receiving wells, which are both connected beyond the opposite ends of the guide panels 27 and 28, as illustrated in FIG. I.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, I provide means for removahly holding in said wells a pair of substantially rectangular flat backed bristle brushes 36, each of which has a metal binding clamp on strip 37. Said means includes a plurality (preferably four) of upwardly extcnding spaced apart abutments or lugs 3t; which are preferably formed integral with the curved walls 25 and 26 respectively. Said lugs 38 are preferably recessed as shown in FIG. 5, to provide inwardly and downwardly inclined foot portions. as shown in Fl-G. 5, and on which the backs of the brushes rest to thereby normally hold said brushes in inclined positions against the sloping guide panels 27 and 28, as shown in FIG. 5. The bristles of said brushes are of lengths sufficient so that their upper ends will contact and intermingle and extend slightly higher than the walls 32 and 33, though being separable by pushing upward movement of gurnmcd paper labels or strips.

I provide adjustable means for maintaining the upper end portions of the bristles out of contact with each other so that when it is desired to moisten only one face of each label, one of said brushes will be prevented from contact with a label passed thru my device. This means includes a metal guard and brush retaining and holding plate or baffle 39, shown in elevation in FIG. 10, and which has depending integral recessed spaced apart apcrtured extensions or ears 40, each of which are correspondingly recessed at their outer corners to form shoulders 41. In normal operation, when labels having both faces gummed and both faces to be wetted, said battle p ate 39 is positioned in a substantially vertical plane so that substantially the entire portions of said cars 40 are seated in and extend through the two slots 20 respectively. The lowered position of said baffle plate is illustrated in PEG. 5, and the size of such bafile plate is such that in its upper position, it extends only a short distance above the upper ends of the brush bristles.

When said baffle plate 39 is in lower position, it acts to guide the forward portions of labels being pushed through my device in that the labels contact either side face of said battle plate 39 to thereby guide the labels in their upward movement and into substantially uniform engagement with the upper portions of said brushes. Said baffle plate 39, by its action in guiding the labels, prevents the labels from pressing to a greater degree on one brush than on the other.

When my device is desired to be used so that only one face of each label is to be moistened, the bafile plate is raised and shifted longitudinally so that the shoulder 41 rests upon the ridge of the trough 19 so that said battle plate will extend upwardly between and above the upper ends of the bristles of the brushes 36. In such position one ungummed face of each label will slide along one face of said baffle plate and be guided upwardly thereby and the other face will be moistened by the wet bristles of one brush which are maintained wet by capillary action.

I desire it to be understood that the aforesaid base and well-containing device may be optionally made in either one piece or in several pieces adapted to be assembled together. In my preferred form as described, the same is moulded in two pieces adapted to be assembled as illustrated. I provide pivotal means for covering said wells and for holding the brush bristles inwardly and together which in my preferred form comprise a pair of metal panels as illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9. Each of said covers is described as follows: numeral 42 designates a flat metal panel having an integral hinge knuckle 43 and a pair of integral angular and extensions or grips 44 whose angularly bent ends frietionally engage the outer faces respectively of the walls 32 and 33 to releasably hold said covers in closed positions. Each of said cover panels 42 has a pair of integral extensions or stops 45 extending from the normally inner edge thereof.

The size of said cover panels 42 is such that the inner straight edges thereof are spaced apart and when closed will push and hold inwardly and impinge the upper portions of the brush bristles so that the bristles of the two brushes are normally yieldably held in adjacent and intermingled positions, though under yieldable tension permitting labels to be pushed between the bristles of said brushes respectively. This will cause the bristles to press against the gummed faces of the labels passed thercbetween, thereby in suring application of an adequate amount of water to such gummcd faces. This holding together action of said cover panels also substantially restricts evaporation of the water from the brushes and from the wells.

A pin 46 is mounted through knuckle 43 and through the aligned holes 47 in the upper corners of the opposite walls 32 and 33 and pivotally mounts each of said covers in place. Said cover panels 42 are of such size that when closed the inner edges thereof will be positioned on opposite sides of the upper ends of the brushes 36 to thereby impinge said bristles and retard evaporation of the moisture from said bristles:

As shown in FIG. 5, numeral 49 designates an integral depending boss which is formed on each of the two end walls 32 and 33 of the upper well-containing casing. Said bosses 49 are adapted to seat in the holes 15 respectively formed in the inwardly extending ribs 14. Such releasable scating engagement of said bosses aids in maintaining the said well-containing casing in proper position superposed upon the base member hereinbefore described.

My aforesaid construction has the additional advantage of providing for quick and easy insertion of gummed labels, strips or the like, and formed of either paper or other sheet-like material through either of the two large side openings 13. As such labels or strips are pushed inwardly the same slidably engage the curved faces of the bottom member 17 and engage the faces of baffle plate 39 and are then moved upwardly through the discharge opening between the inclined wall panels 27 and 28 and between the upper end portions of the brushes, which said brushes are maintained in water to a certain level so that their upper ends will be wet and will uniformly apply adequate moisture to the gummed faces of the labels or strips which are passed thcrebetween.

While the foregoing specification sets forth the invention in specific terms, it is to be understood that numerous changes in the shape, size and materials may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed hereinafter and it is contemplated that various changes may be made in the embodiment of the invention herein specifically described without departing from or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention or any features thereof, and nothing herein shall be construed as limitations upon the invention, its concept or structural embodiment as to the whole or any part thereof except as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a device for moistening gummed strips, a receptacle having integral end walls, integral passaged side walls, and a bottom converging inwardly and upwardly and terminating in a passaged integral shoulder; an upper well member on said receptacle having inner downwardly and upwardly extending inclined wall portions partially defining a pair of liquid-holding wells, the upper edges of said wall portions defining a longitudinal slot; said passaged integral shoulder of said receptacle extending into the space between said inner walls of said wells; aligned recessed lugs on the bottom portion of said wells respectively; a pair of elongated brushes removably mounted on the recesses of said lugs and having their upper end portions normally contacting each other; said upwardly converging inner receptacle walls being adapted to guide gummed strips upwardly through said slot and between the upper portions of said brushes.

2. A device for moistening gummed strips as recited in claim 1 and having an adjustable separator plate removably mounted on said passaged shoulder of said receptacle and adapted to be mounted in upraised position to extend above the upper edge portions of said brushes and to separate the same.

3. In a device for moistcning gummcd strips, a receptacle having integral end walls, integral passaged side walls, and a bottom converging inwardly and upwardly and terminating in a passaged integral shoulder; an upper member on said receptacle having its outer portion removably engaging the upper edges of said receptacle, and having a pair of inner walls extending inwardly and converging upwardly and toward each other to define a longitudinal discharge slot therebetween; said shoulder having a pair of aligned slots therein; a baflle plate having depending extensions rcmovably mounted in said slots respectively; upwardly extending lugs on said inner walls of said upper member and providing recesses for seating of brushes; a pair of brushes removably mounted in said recesses and having their upper portions normally positioned to extend above said baffle plate and in contact with each other; said inwardly and upwardly converging bottom of said receptacle being adapted to guide gummed strips through said discharge slot and into engagement with the upper portions of said brushes.

4. A device for moistening gummed strips on both faces or on one face substantially as recited in claim 3; and wherein said bafie plate extensions are recessed transversely to form shoulders thereon to facilitate selective mounting of said battle plate in upraised position to extend above the upper portions of said brushes to separate said brushes; said baffle plate, when upraised, being adapted to prevent wetting of one face of labels passed through said discharge slot.

5. In a device substantially as recited in claim 3, and having a pair of cover panels pivoted to said upper member adjacent the periphery thereof, and being adapted to be closed inwardly to impinge the upper portions of said brushes and to cause said brushes to yieldably engage the faces of labels.

6. In a device for moistening one or both faces of gummed labels; a receptacle-like base having opposite side openings and having an inwardly and upwardly converging bottOrn terminating in a central slotted shoulder; an upper member on said base and having a pair of liquid wells partially defined by inner upwardly extending walls defining an elongated discharge slot; means in said wells for supporting a pair of brushes in inverted and in inclined positions to permit the upper portions of said brushes to contact each other; said slotted shoulder having spaced apart openings therein; a pair of brushes removably mounted in said supporting means in said wells respectively; said brushes being adapted to contact each other at their upper ends and to moisten faces of labels pushed through said openings of said base and through said discharge slot and a battle plate movably mounted between said brushes and adapted to prevent one of said brushes to be contacted by labels pushed between said brushes.

7. A device for moistening gummcd labels substantially as recited in claim 6, and having a pair of cover panels pivotably connected to said upper member and adapted to be closed inwardly to impinge the upper portions of said brushes to effect sliding engagement of said brushes with faces of labels passed therebetween.

S. In a device for moistening gummed labels; a base comprising a pair of parallel end walls; a pair of inwardly and upwardly curved guiding batlles mounted between said walls, said base having elongated entrance openings on opposite sides thereof, an upper longitudinally slotted container member having an upper opening and mounted upon said end walls, a pair of brushes removnbly mounted in said slotted container; a plurality of supporting lugs on the bottom of said container member adapted to removably hold said brushes therein in upwardly extending inwardly inclined position, the middle portion of said container member having an integral upwardly curved and converging saddle defining a longitudinally extending slot, a pair of cover panels pivotally connected on opposite sides of said container member and adapted to close the upper opening in said container member.

9. In a device for moistening one or both faces of gum med labels; a receptacle-dike base having opposite side openings and having an inwardly and upwardly converging bottom terminating in a central slotted shoulder; an upper member on said base and having a pair of liquid wells partially defined by inner upwardly extending walls defining an elongated discharge slot; means in said wells for supporting a pair of brushes in inverted and in inclined positions to permit the upper portions of said brushes to contact each other; said slotted shoulder having spaced apart openings therein; a pair of brushes removably mounted in said supporting means in said wells respectively; said brushes being adapted to contact each other at their upper ends and to moisten faces of labels pushed through said openings of said base and through said discharge slot, and a movable baffle plate adjustably mounted relative to said spaced apart openings of said shoulder to thereby selectively support said battle plate in upper position to separate the upper portions of said brushes.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,016,216 Pike Oct. 1, 1935 2,504,690 Hummel Apr. 18, 1950 2,674,975 Krueger Apr. 13, 1954 

1. IN A DEVICE FOR MOISTENING GUMMED STRIPS, A RECEPTACLE HAVING INTEGRAL END WALLS, INTEGRAL PASSAGED SIDE WALLS, AND A BOTTOM CONVERGING INWARDLY AND UPWARDLY AND TERMINATING IN A PASSAGED INTEGRAL SHOULDER; AN UPPER WELL MEMBER ON SAID RECEPTACLE HAVING INNER DOWNWARDLY AND UPWARDLY EXTENDING INCLINED WALL PORTIONS PARTIALLY DEFINING A PAIR OF LIQUID-HOLDING WELLS, THE UPPER EDGES OF SAID WALL PORTIONS DEFINING A LONGITUDINAL SLOT; SAID PASSAGED INTEGRAL SHOULDER OF SAID RECEPTACLE EXTENDING INTO THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID INNER WALLS OF SAID WELLS; ALIGNED RECESSED LUGS ON THE BOTTOM PORTION OF SAID WELLS RESPECTIVELY; A PAIR OF ELONGATED BRUSHES REMOVABLY MOUNTED ON THE RECESSES OF SAID LUGS AND HAVING THEIR UPPER END PORTIONS NORMALLY CONTACTING EACH OTHER; SAID UPWARDLY CONVERGING INNER RECEPTACLE WALLS BEING ADAPTED TO GUIDE GUMMED STRIPS UPWARDLY THROUGH SAID SLOT AND BETWEEN THE UPPER PORTIONS OF SAID BRUSHES. 